A vehicle typically includes a climate control system which maintains a temperature within a passenger compartment of the vehicle at a comfortable level by providing heating, cooling, and ventilation. Comfort is maintained in the passenger compartment by an integrated system referred to in the art as a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) air-handling system. The HVAC air-handling system conditions air flowing therethrough and distributes the conditioned air throughout the passenger compartment.
The design of an HVAC air-handling system includes features that control air flow volume, air temperature, and air flow paths, for example. The performance of the HVAC air-handling system must comply with targets including temperature stratification, wherein stratification is the temperature difference between various outlets of the HVAC air-handling system. For some operating states it is desirable to manipulate hot air streams and cold air streams to produce a stratification between outlets. For other operating states no stratification is desired. The level of desired stratification can fluctuate and design features must allow stratification to be adjustable.
To comply with the desired stratification targets, prior art HVAC air-handling systems include secondary features including baffles, conduits, mixing plates, and/or additional doors to facilitate mixing of the hot air streams with the cold air streams. The addition of these features and/or components can reduce airflow, degrade flow efficiency, increase noise, and increase the cost and weight of the system. Further, many of the prior art systems fail to meet the desired stratification targets.
It would be desirable to produce a temperature control system for an air-handling system of a HVAC system for a vehicle, wherein a cost and a weight of the system are minimized, and airflow, noise, flow efficiency and stratification of the system are optimized.